E30 Zone

I am looking to give everything inside the engine bay a bit of a makeover and was wondering if anyone had any specific tips and suggestions for paints.I'd be particularly interested in suggestions for a decent colour match for the black/dark grey on the airbox etc

Also unsure if to paint the air intake silver or just give it a good scrub and coat it in clearcoat... any experiences would be welcome

My only comment about paint in the engine bay would be to use something oil and fuel resistant with good heat properties on any components under the hood, that includes clearcoat.

Two pack is a bit unfriendly to use, I've found the best alternative is an engine enamel or for a quick and easy solution, brake caliper paint in an aerosol, designed for high temps and harsh conditions.

Paul

I would be inclined to rub the airbox with an oily rag, normally brings back the correct colour.

To get a good finish on the intake it would either need to be soda/bead blasted and or painted to get it a nice factory silver again.

Inlets were never silver from the factory, more a dull grey.

Thanks Paul, I was indeed planning to use enamel and VHT paints for bit's on engine etc.I was thinking about whether any one had any recommendations of paint's/colours for the air intake box (MAF) that would maintain an OEM look.Also not sure about best way to deal with intake manifold, I would like to maintain the silver aluminium look and was going to just clearcoat it but it's impossible to fully clean it without blasting etc so was thinking about the most authentic looking aluminium silver that might work.

I did mine when I had the head off after I blew the gasket....and at that point it was a dull grey...I cleaned it up using wire brush/ dremel and so on and painted it with BMW Arctic Silver from Halfords...pretty close to the cars Sterling Silver, then some Halfords clear coat, it was fine for a while but working with a fuel pressure issue it got melted by petrol contact...looked horrible, so recently I stripped it all down again and painted it with silver caliper paint which looks a bit bright but its very solid.

Is your airbox covered in a kind of goop that I think they sprayed the engine bay with, like a light wax, which dealers were supposed to clean off? 30 years later it's baked on pretty hard. I cleaned the wax off with petrol and then rubbed a good dose of boiled linseed oil into it, this gives a really great finish which will last 12 months before needing a light refresh.

Boiled Linseed comes as half a litre for 10 quid and will look after all the cars plastic for the rest of its or your life. You use it really sparingly, rub it in let it dry 10 minutes and then polsh it off.

Paul

Agree with Paul here - can't go wrong with calliper paint.
My favourite is VHT Cast Aluminum (SP735)

With the airbox, I had some time while I waiting on cooling system parts - see here